The present invention relates generally to an electrical connector and, more particularly, to a high temperature hermetic electrical connector of the type which may be used in hostile environments.
A standard socket contact utilized in the connector industry comprises a tubular member which has a pair of opposed longitudinal slots therein opening at one end thereof, defining a pair of longitudinally extending spring fingers. The spring fingers function as spring beams which resiliently engage a pin contact inserted into the socket contact. Such a contact is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,564,487. The contact is not suitable for use in hermetic connectors in which the contact body is sealed into the insulator of the connector by the use of heat, such as by using a glass ring seal or by brazing, because the heat used in the sealing process anneals the spring beams causing them to lose their resilience. Thus, in a hermetic connector in which heat is used to form the seal of the contact body in the insulator, it is necessary to utilize a separate spring member which is mounted on the contact body after the body is sealed in the insulator. Normally, the spring member of the socket contact has been permanently applied to the sealed socket contact body by crimping, welding, etc. If the spring member becomes damaged during use of the connector, it cannot be removed from the contact body for replacement without distorting the sealed contact body and, therefore, damaging the hermeticity of the connector.
Therefore, what is needed in the industry, and which constitutes the purpose of the present invention, is a hermetic electrical connector in which the spring members of the socket contacts may be removed from the sealed contact bodies without damaging the seals so that damaged socket contact springs may be replaced in the field without impairing the sealing integrity of the connector. While the present invention will be described specifically with respect to a hermetic connector, it will be appreciated from the following description that the invention may also be applied to electrical connectors in which the contacts are not hermetically sealed in the insulators in the connectors.